Leonardo da Vinci studied an ornithopter, a flying-machine concept intended to fly by flapping wings like a bird.
His notebooks contain observations of birds, wing structures, and mechanisms for converting human movement into wing beats. He recognized that human muscle power would be a major limitation, but he continued investigating how anatomy and mechanics might be combined.
An ornithopter is defined by flapping wings, not simply by having wings. That makes it different from a glider, which stays aloft with fixed wings, and from an airship, which uses buoyancy.
Leonardo’s ornithopter studies were exploratory designs rather than a proven aircraft. No reliable evidence shows that one of his full-scale flying machines successfully flew with a person aboard.